Institute for Justice

Dreher and Echeverria

January 2007

In the fight to protect home and small business owners from the government’s abuse of eminent domain, it was only a matter of time until the apologists of the practice—taking property from one private individual and transferring it to another—began their counteroffensive. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous and widely despised decision in Kelo v. City of New London, abuse defenders have descended upon state capitals, been heard through the airwaves and penned many articles, all with the hope of preserving this enormous power of government.

Their latest missive, Robert Dreher and John Echeverria’s “Kelo’s Unanswered Questions,” is simply another attack on the fundamental principle that Americans should be able to keep what they own. As shown in this short paper, Dreher and Echeverria miss facts and are disrespectful to property owners, internally illogical and altogether short on substance.